President Obama Joins Twitter as Potus

President Obama just shared his first Tweet. His Twitter handle is Potus.

I did not realize that President Barack Obama did not have a Twitter account. That just changed. His Twitter handle is Potus. Potus, if you don’t know, stands for President of the United States of America. Obama is of course trying to be funny in his first Tweet. He complains that it took 6 years into his presidency to get a Twitter account.

Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.— President Obama (@POTUS) /4/18, 2015

His Twitter description says: Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States and warns that Tweets maybe archived by the Whitehouse. In the first 15 minutes of his first Tweet Potus has already over 32,000 followers and close to 6,000 retweets. It will be interesting to see if Potus uses his Twitter account to support Hilary Clinton in her Presidential campaign for 2016.

The WhiteHouse says that the @POTUS Twitter account will serve as a new way for President Obama to engage directly with the American people, with tweets coming exclusively from him. President Obama is committed to making his Administration the most open and participatory in history, and @POTUS will give Americans a new venue to engage on the issues that matter most to them.

Is Twitter offering extra security monitoring for @Potus? It would be very embarrassing and potentially dangerous if hackers hijack the President’s Twitter account.